would you rather pick a potential franchise big man or a potential franchise point

would you rather pick a potential franchise big man or a potential franchise point

Think Dwight Howard or Chris Paul both would be your cornerstone on which to build a dynasty
History-2005 Bucks take Andrew Bogut over Chris Paul and Deron Williams-edge PG
2002 Rockets take Yao over Duke star guard Jay Williams-edge center, 1994 Glenn Robinson(technically a pf, but who cares) is taken first overall while HOF Jason Kidd is taken one pick later-edge guard
here are some pros and cons for each positions
PG-pros
Always have the ball and control of the game in their hands
Less injury prone
cons- All the responsibility could lead to arrogance and clashes with coaches, off the top of your heads name the biggest head cases in the game-marbury, tinsley, baron davis see a recurring theme?

Bigs-
pros-are more likely to dominate a game then a guard
come in all different shapes and sizes Tim Duncan, Barkely, Nowitzki, Mutumbo all are completely different but all are great, while most franchise points are the same(pass-first,playmaking leaders)
cons-are usually more injured then guards
college competition is different, in college many bigs rely on brute strengh or overwhelming size to dominate, while guards dont have to adjust their games much to suceed in the pros

Big. Every time. Championships are won in the paint, no matter how much the game evolves, if you are without competent bigs, you are not in the championship or losing the championship. Look at history, and you will see what I mean. Notice that when Michael Jordan played in the finals, he NEVER played against a team with a good center. As bad as the Bulls were inside, their defense and rebounding kept them competitive in those times. Franchise point guards can make a mediocre team good, centers can make a mediocre team great.

its hard to say, good post, but i think i would have to go with franchise big aswell. I just think a big would take you to the promise land more so than a pg. I know this is only for one circumstance, but take the magic, lets say you have chris paul there, and dont have dwight, and you just have a mediocre center. I dont think the magic would be in the position they are in. Some of you are gonna say Howard is overrated and dont have any post moves and what not, but hes a game changer and you cant argue that.

in the old days, when there was no 3pt line, centers were way more importtant. not as much today. now even if a good big man wins a title, he needs someone on the wing to help him. in the nba today, a good guard can win a title by himself before a center. a good example is d wade in miami. he basically won the title by himself.

As much as it may be true that the best players in the game are guards and forwards, the best teams have competent bigs. LeBron James has a chance to be maybe the greatest player to ever play the game, but with a slow and frontcourt that lacked athleticism (not to mention once fringe All-Star/Actual All-Star big men WAY past their prime), they came up short in the play-offs. The reason the Lakers are as good as they are is in large part due to Kobe Bryant being phenomenal, but in a large part it due to the fact that he got a Pau Gasol to help him out in the front court. I mean, you could say that Pau Gasol and Mo Williams were both probably close to the last guys to make the All-Star teams in their respective conference, but I have no doubt that the Lakers are happy with who they have as second banana. Of course I would rather have a franchise point guard and a fringe all-star big than a franchise big and a mediocre PG, but a team is built on more than two players. Even with the changes in the game, big men make life easier. You could say Magic lead teams to championship, but he had Kareem. You could say Isaiah Thomas lead the Pistons to a title, but the dude had a rugged front court. Too far in the past? Let's break down the past few champs

Boston Kevin Garnett lead this team with his defensive intensity, and the play of his bigs off the bench were another big part of the Celtics title drive.

San Antonio Spurs Tim Duncan=Franchise Center. If any other team had drafted Timmy, he would have been considered a 5 and not the greatest 4 of all-time due to winning his first couple rings with the Admiral

Miami Heat Had Jason Williams at point, D-Wade killing it at ridiculous levels, and Shaq played as "The Big Decoy", which won them the chip

Detroit Utter domination in their front court defensively, they had Mehmet Okur coming off their bench when they won their title

Lakers Shaq and Kobe. Shaq won 3 Finals MVP, deservedly so. I actually was looking up Shaq's finals losses, and honestly, look at his numbers in those, and dude STILL killed it.

Potential franchise big over potential franchise point until a team without competent bigs wins a title.

bigs win championships. for most of nba history, a championship was one when one team had one dominant big man in their team. it's only the bulls that won without one (but they had the greatest player with them anyway, and the greatest side-kick as well).

also, auber said earlier, it's a point guard game nowadays. yeah, it's true, there's a ton of good pgs playing in the league today and very few dominant bigs. why draft franchise pg when you can draft a franchise big in the lottery or first round and draft a 2nd-tier pg in the late 1st round (assuming you have 2 1st round picks) or in the 2nd round. just look at the upcoming draft, it's loaded with pgs, 4 is projected to go in the lottery, and there's a couple more in the top20s, and only one franchise big. there's a handful of good pgs that came from late 1st round (21 up) to the 2nd round (arenas, tony parker, mario chalmers, rondo, alston, monta ellis, mo williams, ramon sessions) calderon went undrafted but i don't know when he signed for the draft. mike james also a decent pg went undrafted. only few good bigs were taken late in the draft or not taken at all: big ben, boozer, millsap, okur, brad miller.

bigs need help in the wings when they're double teamed. 3point shooters in the wings are valuable, but there's a lot of those players in the league (korver, kapono, james jones, quentin richardson, .....)

i'd say big coz the bigman is the foundation, but not really if you have lebron or mj.

Big man definately, good luck trying to find one they are so many overrated guys drafted high like Olowokandi, Kwame, Curry, Okafor, Bogut, Darko and maybe Oden out there. Far cry from Ewing, Olajuwon, Robinson, Shaq, Duncan all drafted #1. Better off taking the athletic SG/SF usually less of a gamble you can get by with an average pg like Fisher, Alston even.

Jazz and Hornets both made the 2nd round last year but the Hornets lack talent besides West, Paul. Utah plays no D and keeps drawing Kobe & the Fakers. You can find pgs later on in the draft like Rondo, Parker,

I'm very impressed by the comments in this thread. It is a big man everytime and the reason being they win the rings. Yeah as great as Paul and Williams have been they haven't shown they can win it all yet. Until we see that it can be done without at least all-star level big men (even Kobe couldn't do it) then you have to go big.

Definitely a big. Who was the last superstar point to win a championship? Isiah Thomas? Last big? Exactly. The problem for alot of us is that there have been alot of points coming into the league lately but not many good bigs. Dwight Howard is considered the best center today but he might not have made the top 10 in the 90's. He is a mediocre player, just an incredible athlete. Look where he is now. If I had a chance to take a reincarnation of Hakeem or Isiah, I'm definitely taking Hakeem.